


Risen and Taken

by NetRaptor



Series: Destiny and Destiny 2 stories [8]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Curses, Fishing, Friendship, Gen, Guardians on vacation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Suspense, vacation gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-22 19:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15588855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NetRaptor/pseuds/NetRaptor
Summary: While on a patrol to try to de-stress, Guardians Jayesh and Shane-5 encounter a group of humans living in hiding. And they're being Taken, one by one. Can Jayesh and Shane save the village, or will the Darkness Take them as well?





	1. Human

Jayesh was a young warlock who had only been under Vanguard command a few months. He had become adept at fighting Fallen and Cabal, alien races that often harassed the Last City on Earth.

But he had nightmares after his first encounter with the Hive. And then he met the Taken.

He'd read about them, of course. He knew their history, or as much as humans knew of it. He'd watched videos during training, and listened to the stories told by older Guardians. He'd studied the Books of Sorrow late at night, and lost sleep afterward.

But when he and his fireteam, Madrid the hunter and Kari the warlock, faced off against an unexpectedly large number of Taken in a cave, Jayesh nearly lost his mind.

Maybe it was the holes in reality - black gaps where rocks or walls had been, with strange sounds coming from them.

Maybe it was the way the Taken moved - a sort of sliding, wobbling motion, as if this reality was underwater.

Maybe it was the way some of them split into two, or four.

Or maybe it was when a smaller one rushed him while he was shooting a bigger one. He turned around and it was in his face, a black figure outlined in traces of burning white. For an instant, Jayesh stared into its face, and it was a human. A human with black, dead eyes, a sagging jaw, and a spot of brightness on its forehead that was not light.

He raised one hand and blasted it with a burst of fire. The Taken human screamed, but not like a human or an animal - like machinery screeching in a factory. Its form curled and vanished into the air like water down a drain.

Jayesh realized he was making the same sound, and shut his mouth.

"Jayesh! You okay?" Kari asked over the helmet radio. She was a few feet away, crouched behind a stalagmite, firing her pulse rifle in noisy bursts.

"Fine!" he exclaimed, checking his HUD for the next target.

His ghost, Phoenix, didn't make a sound, but Jayesh felt his silent concern.

There was no time during a firefight to think about what he'd seen, but now he was afraid to look closely at the other Taken, for fear of what he might see, even the ones that plainly had once been Cabal or Vex. He fired until his rifle was empty, switched to his sidearm, and used that.

The nightmare only got worse. They came upon a black portal flickering in the next cavern. As they approached, it opened, and a wispy, hellish thing like a vast spider crawled out.

The fight was dire, with all three of them growing tired and low on ammo. Jayesh took a slash across the chest from one of the thing's claws. He was glad of the excuse to take refuge behind a boulder, rest for a moment, and allow Phoenix to heal him. The fight and the horrors that surrounded him pounded in his brain like a fever. He tried not to think at all, but the fear remained, compacting into layers that he'd have to deal with once this was over.

"Use your fusion rifle," Phoenix suggested in his head. "The monster is using void energy, and that rifle has a void mod."

It was Jayesh's newest weapon, and he'd been itching for an excuse to use it. He hauled it in off his shoulder strap, swung out from behind the rock, and aimed at the monster.

The first shot nearly knocked him over. The laser slashed through the Taken monster's form like a knife through cheese. It screeched. Jayesh steadied himself and fired again.

The whole creature fizzled apart into crackling purple fragments. Each fragment disappeared into the air as if being sucked down a hole.

Kari and Madrid whooped and cheered. Jayesh sat there, gripping his rifle, waiting for some other horror to appear. He was still there, still aiming at the middle of the room, when his companions found him.

"Hey," Madrid said. "Relax, Jay. It's over. When that thing died, it took its buddies with it."

Jayesh slowly stood up, clinging to his rifle. He wanted to respond, to laugh with his team, congratulate them on winning the fight. But the words stayed locked behind his tongue. The magnitude of the otherworldly terror he had experienced filled him, blotting out all other emotion.

He followed his friends out of the cave, watching over his shoulder, expecting some new creature to emerge from the darkness as they passed. The gaps in reality had vanished, and the cave was just a cave - rock, flowstone, and an uneven floor carved by water.

They emerged in sunlight on the surface of terraformed Io. All around were yellow rock formations and geysers of hot water. Kari and Madrid were laughing at the size of the bounty they'd earn for clearing out so many Taken. Their laughter seemed as distant as Pluto to Jayesh.

Their ships were docked four miles away, far from any alien interference. It would be a long, long walk.

Jayesh ducked into the shadow of a mushroom-shaped rock and huddled on the ground, knees drawn to his chest, clinging to his rifle like a safety blanket. His ragged breathing picked up on the radio.

Kari and Madrid turned to see their companion wasn't with them. "Uh oh," Kari said in a low voice. She and Madrid returned. Kari sat down beside Jayesh and wrapped her arms around him. She jerked her head at Madrid, who settled himself on the other side of Jayesh with a grunt.

"What's wrong, Jay?" Kari asked.

Jayesh stared straight ahead, trying to control his breathing and the pounding of his heart. "One was human."

"What was?" Madrid said.

"A Taken," Jayesh said. "It got too close, and I looked at it. It was human."

Kari and Madrid exchanged glances over Jayesh's head.

"I suppose it could happen," Madrid said. "They can't take Guardians, because of our Light. But if an average human crossed them ... it's possible."

Kari squeezed Jayesh a little, which didn't do much, because they both wore layers of enviro-suits and battle armor. "It's all right, now, Jay. We made it."

Jayesh didn't respond.

"Phoenix," Kari said, "can you help him?"

The star-shaped robot phased into being in a cloud of blue particles. He wore a shiny red and yellow shell, his blue eye blinking from the center. He swooped around Jayesh, sweeping him with a healing beam. Then he moved himself back and forth in midair, like a human shaking their head. "He's not hurt, but he's beyond terrified. It's actually clouding his Light."

Jayesh still clung to his rifle. Madrid reached over and gently lifted it away. "You don't need this now, kid. It's all right."

Jayesh clung to the rifle for a moment, glanced at Madrid, then let go. Madrid laid it on the ground beside him.

"Look," Madrid said, "this is battlefield shock. Happens to the best of us sometimes. You meet a new enemy you were unprepared for. Not like anything can prepare you for the Taken. When I first saw one, I thought my helmet had bugs crawling on it."

"Yeah," Kari agreed. "I first saw them back on Venus. We knew they were a problem, but nobody tells you about the way they ... wiggle."

"They took a human," Jayesh repeated, as if he hadn't heard a word they'd said. "I knew they took the alien races. They're under the Darkness. But humans have the Light. I thought - I thought -"

"Guardians have the Light," Madrid corrected. "It's why we can fight the Taken and the Vex without being wiped from existence. Regular humans aren't so lucky."

Jayesh rested his head on his knees. "I want to go home."

"Can you walk?" Kari said. "I'll give you a ride on my sparrow."

Jayesh nodded. He slowly climbed to his feet, where he snatched up his rifle and slung it across his back. His ghost phased into him in a swirl of energy.

Kari summoned her sparrow, and Madrid summoned his. Jayesh didn't have one yet, and he didn't know if he could have driven properly right now, anyway.

As he and Kari soared along a few feet from the ground on the motorcycle-like hovercraft, he thought to Phoenix, "What did you mean? That my Light was clouded?"

"Your fear," Phoenix replied. "It's actually blotting out your connection to the Traveler. Take courage, Jay. Your team destroyed a Taken ascendant."

"But they took a human," Jayesh thought, shivers running through him. "How many other humans have been dragged into the Darkness to have the soul stripped out of them?"

"Does it matter?" Phoenix said. "There's nothing you can do for them. They may have been Taken a thousand years ago. The Darkness respawns the same minions it's been using for centuries."

"But ..." Jayesh hesitated. "That could have been me. Or Kari. Or Madrid." That was the crux of his fear - the horror that had been devouring him.

"No, it couldn't," Phoenix insisted. "The Light prevents them from taking Guardians. They can harm your body, Jay, but they can't touch your spark."

This reassured Jayesh a little. Still, when the team reached their ships and agreed to meet back at the Last City on Earth, Jayesh could barely make himself speak. He climbed into his ship, let his ghost take command of launch and trajectory calculations, and curled into the fetal position in the pilot's seat.

Even with the ship's jump drive, it took eight hours to travel between Jupiter and Earth. Jayesh slept most of the way, but every few hours, he awoke screaming from nightmares about Hive and Taken combined.

Phoenix watched the controls and his Guardian, deeply concerned. Jayesh had always been tender-hearted to the point where he was a liability as a soldier. Phoenix had hoped that he'd toughen up after spending time in the field. While Jayesh had matured rapidly in some ways, something like this came along and broadsided them both.

Jayesh's nightmares filtered through the link he shared with his ghost. This one was about being seized and dragged into the Darkness. Phoenix shuddered.

Sure enough, a moment later, Jayesh shrieked and awoke, clawing at his flight harness. He remembered where he was and flopped in the seat, panting. "Phoenix, can't you make these dreams stop?"

"I'm sorry, no," Phoenix said sorrowfully. "I won't tamper with your brain."

Jayesh clutched his chest, feeling for his own pulse. "How do other Guardians cope with fighting Taken?"

"Experience, I guess," Phoenix said. "Once you get used to them, they're just one more enemy, and you don't think about it much."

Jayesh curled in the seat again and stared at the instrument panel. As long as he focused on something else, the horror faded a little. Thinking about the course Phoenix had plotted and trying to figure out a better one occupied him.

He made sure it occupied him the rest of the way home.

* * *

Back at Vanguard HQ, Jayesh went straight to Ikora, the Warlock Commander.

She was already talking to two other Warlocks, details of a mission, probably. Jayesh hung back, his helmet under one arm. It was a warm afternoon on top of the wall, and beneath his layers of gear, he was already sweltering. Sweat beaded on his brown skin. Phoenix floated beside him, enjoying his freedom in the security of the new tower.

The other warlocks departed, and Ikora beckoned Jayesh forward. "Hello, Guardian. How did things go on Io?"

He tried to give a full report. But his brain kept hiccuping whenever he tried to explain about fighting the Taken.

"They were holed up in a cave in the southeastern quadrant. We thought we could sweep through and eliminate those ... those globe things. The blights. But there were more Taken than we thought, and ... and ..." Once more he stared into that human face, the empty eyes of darkness. "One was a Taken human. It got too close and I saw it. I killed it, but ... It was a Taken human, commander!"

Ikora watched his face, her shrewd eyes missing nothing. "The Taken have seized a few humans in the past. It saddens me that you had to meet one on your first encounter."

Jayesh shuddered and tried to continue his report. "So we cleared that room and moved on to the next. There was a ..." He thought of the black, shimmering portal and his mind went blank. He backtracked. "I mean, we emptied the first room. Then we moved on, and we saw ..." He halted. The words just wouldn't form.

Ikora said gently, "Why don't you let your ghost finish for you?"

Jayesh nodded and waved Phoenix forward. Phoenix gave a superb report, adding details about the portal and Taken ascendant that Jayesh had completely missed. He hadn't realized the final monster had been Taken Hive.

"Thank you, ghost," Ikora said. "Guardian, your team banished a great evil from our world today. Thank you." She reached into a box beneath the nearest table and produced a dice-shaped object called an engram. It was matter coded into data, and from the inscription on top, contained a new weapon.

As Jayesh took it, Ikora added, "I want you to visit the medical wing and talk to a doctor. You've had trauma, and a doctor will teach you how to recover. Understand?"

"Yes, Commander," Jayesh said meekly. She understood what was wrong with him, and that was worth any amount of strictness. Trauma. Thank the Traveler there was a term for it.

Carrying his engram, Jayesh decided to visit the Cryptarch and have it decoded before heading down to the medical floor. It would only take a few minutes, and he wanted to see what he'd been awarded.

The Tower was fairly crowded that day, and Jayesh had to pick his way between other Guardians and clusters of regular people. As he was standing in an alcove, waiting for three fire teams to pass by, all talking loudly about Crucible scores, Phoenix made a soft, questioning beep.

Jayesh looked around. His ghost was gazing into the alcove. It was shady and dark inside, and at first glance, was stacked only with crates of salvage recently recovered from the Fallen. But as Jayesh stepped further in, a ghost's eye turned toward them, blinking.

A figure lay sprawled on top of the crates, slouched against the stone wall. By the massive plate armor, it was a Titan, the warrior class of the Guardians. His ghost floated beside him, but the Titan made no sign that he had noticed Jayesh. Asleep? Drunk?

"Excuse me?" Jayesh ventured. "Are you all right, sir?"

The Titan stirred and lifted his head. He was an Exo - the robot race that had once been human. His eyes glowed green. "What do you want?"

"I'm, uh ..." Jayesh licked dry lips. "I was just walking by, and ... do you need help?"

"Yeah, I need help," the Exo muttered. "Help out of the Vanguard."

Jayesh glanced at Phoenix. This didn't sound like something he should get involved in, not with the recent media smear campaign still a fresh sore in his mind. "I guess I'll leave you alone, then."

"Wait." The Exo sat up, his armor rasping as the plates scraped together. "That was rude. I'm Shane-5, and this is Valor." He nodded at his ghost and extended a hand.

Jayesh shook the warm metal hand. "I'm Jayesh, and this is Phoenix."

The ghosts nodded politely at each other.

"Jayesh," Shane said. "Are you the Guardian who the Cult of Osiris tried to murder?"

Jayesh nodded. "They did, actually. But my ghost is awesome." He held up a fist and Phoenix bumped it.

Shane's mechanical face flexed in a smile. "You're tough, for a warlock. I like that. Want to know why I'm hiding back here?"

Jayesh looked around the shady alcove. "It's cooler?"

"Kid, I'm wearing full plate," Shane said. "Temperature doesn't matter. No, I'm back here because they just rebooted me, and I'm talking like two months ago. Fortunately, I've got a great girl who's been helping me through it."

"Right," Jayesh said, wondering where this was going. When an Exo's brain was rebooted, it erased huge chunks of memory. It was why they changed the number attached to their name, because they had to start over as a new person.

"I just got back from a mission to Mars," Shane went on, lowering his voice. "Clovis Bray. Rasputin. Yeah, I learned some stuff. You get sent to Mars, they won't want you talking. I've got orders here for another reboot. And this time, there ain't nothing wrong with my brain. They want me to forget. And I don't want to forget. Cindra's a great woman, and I was hoping to pop the question soon. So here I sit."

Jayesh stood there, gazing at the doomed Exo, utterly out of his depth. His own fear of the Taken suddenly seemed so insignificant. Sure, the horror still crept through him whenever he remembered their flowing, sliding movement. But Shane was facing an even greater horror - that of political manipulation and silencing.

"Who gave you the order?" Jayesh asked. "Not Zavala?"

"Executor Hideo," Shane said. "I've been on his personal Crucible team since my last reboot. Had to retrain. Once we Guardians pledge to a faction, Zavala gets very hands-off. He's head of the Consensus, you know, and he tries to let each faction manage their affairs as they see fit."

"But doesn't he know about Mars?" Jayesh said. "I mean, even if it's top secret, he's the High Commander. He ought to know."

Shane shrugged his armored shoulders. "He was there. He knows. But he also hated everything that went on. If he tells me to get a reboot, I've really got no choice. Hideo, maybe I can put it off and he'll forget."

"Want to go on patrol with me?" Jayesh blurted. "I mean ... we'd be gone a few days. Maybe a week or two. Head out into the EDZ, get some distance."

Shane gazed at him for a moment. "I like the way you think. But ... no offense, but you're a warlock. And your gear ..." He gestured to Jayesh's grimy robe.

Jayesh grinned. "You know why warlocks never need new boots? Because they're used to being carried."

Shane threw back his head and laughed. "You're all right, kid. Let's meet at Cayde's shop in an hour, see what patrols he has for us."

"Make it two," Jayesh said. "I just got back from Io and I've got some errands."

"Gotcha."

Jayesh headed for the Cryptarch's tent, still lugging his engram.

Phoenix muttered, "You're going on patrol with a Titan you just met?"

"He needs help," Jayesh muttered. "It was all I could think of. I don't have any clout with politicians around here. I don't even know what New Monarchy does."

The Cryptarch studied Jayesh's engram for a moment, then placed it in a machine and tapped a few buttons on a tablet with a cracked screen. The blue dice-shape fizzled and reshaped itself into a pulse rifle.

Pleased, Jayesh accepted his new rifle and inspected its magazine and action as he descended the stairs toward the medical floor. "This is a quality rifle, Phoenix. Can't wait to use it."

"On patrol, you'll probably have to," Phoenix said dryly.

Jayesh checked in at the medical desk. The Awoken behind the desk told him to wait while a doctor was assigned to him. Jayesh passed a happy fifteen minutes taking his new rifle apart and reassembling it.

The doctor who called for him was a human woman in a blue lab coat. She led him to an exam room and directed him to a chair. "Hello, Guardian Jayesh. What seems to be the problem?"

The horror came creeping back. The blood drained from Jayesh's face, leaving him cold. "I fought Taken for the first time," he forced himself to say. "And they ... and I ... I just can't ... they had a human."

The doctor nodded sympathetically. "I took one look at the Taken, resigned as a combat Guardian and became a doctor." She held out a hand, summoning her ghost. It wore a light blue shell that matched her lab coat.

Phoenix phased into being at once, twirling his shell in an aggressive way. "Don't even think of altering his brain functions."

"Relax," the other ghost replied in a feminine voice. "Passive only. If your Guardian has been harmed, we need to know."

"Phoenix," Jayesh warned. "Don't."

Undeterred, Phoenix stood his ground beside his Guardian and watched the medical ghost's every move. Jayesh gazed into its scan beam when instructed and tried to answer basic questions about his encounter. But his mind kept hitting blank spots. Already he was forgetting.

"Post-traumatic stress," the doctor said, viewing her ghost's findings on her tablet. "I'm seeing dead patches in your prefrontal cortex and elevated cortisol levels. If I could recommend you take a vacation, I would. You need quiet, peaceful stimulation to lower the cortisol levels and let your brain recover."

"A patrol?" Jayesh said.

The doctor shrugged. "Maybe. As long as you stay out of combat. It looks like you've been under stress for a lot longer than a day or two." She gazed at him searchingly.

Jayesh nodded. "Did you read what the media was saying about me meeting the Traveler?"

Understanding flashed across the doctor's face. "Oh. You're _that_ Guardian Jayesh."

He didn't want to discuss it and raised both hands. "Just saying. Yeah, I've had stress."

The doctor looked at her ghost, communicating rapidly and silently, the way Guardians did. After a moment, they faced Jayesh again. "Rest," the doctor said. "Make it a long, slow patrol. You, ghost, make sure he keeps it low key. I know brain tampering is taboo, but you'll be trying to rebuild his brain here in the next few years, if this stress keeps up."

"Yes ma'am," Phoenix said, sounding subdued.

"I'll try," Jayesh said. He couldn't think of anything less relaxing than tromping through the wilds with a strange Titan, but he was already committed.

The doctor dismissed him. Jayesh trudged back upstairs for a quick shower before heading out of the Tower. His mind was tired and blank.

Feeling fresher afterward, but still tired, Jayesh hiked into the hanger, where Cayde's tiny office was. Shane was already there, his bulky armor making two of the lithe, slim Hunter Vanguard.

"Hey, it's Jayesh," Cayde said. "Sorry about the cult thing. You busted them before I did."

"Thanks," Jayesh said faintly. "Got any patrols that won't see much action? I've got doctor's orders to rest."

The two Exos peered at him. "Ah," Cayde said. "The human reboot, eh? Well, let me see." He pulled out a box and rifled through a set of folders. Finally he extracted a sheet of paper and held it up. "I've been saving this one. Requires special gear that I don't give out to just any Guardians. You might be out there a while. Pack lots of food and a couple of tents." He handed Jayesh the report.

_Mission location: Mirror Lake, 150 miles south of the Last City_

_Objective: To discover which species of freshwater fish tastes the best when grilled over hot coals_

_Equipment: fishing tackle_

Jayesh bit his lips to keep from laughing aloud. He passed it to Shane. "Is this for real?"

"Sure it's real," Cayde said. "Made it up myself, didn't I?" He disappeared into his tiny shack, reappearing a moment later with a tackle box and two telescoping rods.

"Shane, here, told me about his next reboot," Cayde said in a low voice, passing Jayesh the gear. "It's malicious, is what it is. While you're gone, I'll talk politics with Zavala. See if we can't sort out Hideo."

"Do you know what happened on Mars?" Jayesh asked.

Cayde chuckled. "Oh, the Vanguard knows all about it. Zavala's been tearing his hair out. Figuratively speaking."

It was Shane's turn to try not to laugh.

"I'll keep in touch," Cayde went on. "Let you know when it's safe to come back. Meanwhile, get some rest. You've died a lot, recently, and too many deaths do take their toll."

Shane gave Jayesh a questioning look. Jayesh shook his head and hauled the armload of 'patrol' gear toward his ship.

It took a while to gather the materials they needed. Shane hunted for tents while Jayesh rounded up food supplies, mostly so he'd get to eat the things he liked. He and Phoenix chatted as they worked, keeping things light and fun. It kept Jayesh's mind away from the dark things that crawled in his memory.


	2. Patrol-ish

Mirror Lake was a long, narrow body of water that filled the floor of a shallow valley. Forest lined the mountains all around, deep green with summer growth.

"I could get used to this," Shane said, kicking brush aside to make a space to camp. He'd removed his heavy armor, and looked much more approachable in human clothes.

Jayesh broke a dead branch off a tree for firewood. "Best patrol ever, right?"

"Right." Shane unrolled the first little tent. "I almost hope we meet a bear. See some real wildlife for a change. I'm sick of Fallen."

"I'd rather not meet anything," Jayesh said. "Birds, maybe. Birds are nice."

They finished setting up camp, and walked down to the lake shore to try fishing. Neither of them had ever done it before - wilderness survival was a Hunter thing. But they figured out how to set up the rods and bait the hooks, and settled down to watch their lines in the water.

Sitting on the shore, slapping mosquitoes, listening to the deep, refreshing silence of the wilderness, Jayesh relaxed for the first time. He'd never noticed how the constant noise and bustle of the City weighed on him. Maybe he should have been a Hunter, after all. Madrid was always taking missions that took him outside the borders.

"Know why I was rebooted last time?" Shane said, breaking the silence.

"Why?" Jayesh asked. "I mean, do you remember?"

"Cindra remembers for me," Shane said. He related a sad story of losing a fellow Guardian and friend to snipers on Mars. It triggered a chain reaction in his brain that caused the human mind to begin rejecting the Exo body. Only a reboot could save him.

"So, I needed it," Shane said. "But I'm not doing it again so soon. Not for classified junk."

"Better not tell me, then," Jayesh said. "Want to hear about what the Traveler's like inside?"

Shane was massively curious, so Jayesh told the story. Thinking about the Traveler, the way its Light felt as it empowered and sustained him, relaxed him even more. Better to dwell on the Light than the Darkness.

When he finished, Shane said nothing for a while. Then he remarked, "I wish I had the guts to climb up there."

"You'd die," Jayesh said with conviction. "The Traveler's awakened, now. The Light is too strong. It almost erased my spark, and that was with the Traveler shielding me."

"Still." Shane grinned as well as his metal face could. "What a way to go, huh? You'd probably never even know you died. It would just be all Light. Like living in a super charge."

Jayesh's throat developed a lump, for some reason. What a terrible, yet wonderful thought. He concentrated on his line and swallowed several times.

"Hey, got a bite!" Shane exclaimed, jumping to his feet. His line was taut, his rod bending. He reeled in as fast as he could, which wasn't terribly fast, because the fish fought so hard, sometimes the reel wouldn't turn. But finally Shane reached into the water and hauled out a gleaming yellow-green fish with a black back.

Both their ghosts phased into being and examined it. "Smallmouth bass," Valor proclaimed proudly. "Good to eat."

"How do you know about fish?" Jayesh said in astonishment. "I thought you only knew computers and tech!"

The ghosts exchanged glances. "Well," Phoenix said, "we wanted to help, so we downloaded the local wilderness data from the Vanguard servers."

Shane laughed. "Excellent! Tell me how we eat this thing."

While Shane was cleaning his catch, Jayesh landed a catfish as long as his arm. He cleaned his fish, too, with instructions from his ghost, and they cooked them as soon as the fire was hot enough.

Fresh, grilled fish was a new experience for both Jayesh and Shane. Shane proclaimed it gourmet, and Jayesh wished they'd caught more.

Three days passed. They fished, swam, explored the woods around their campground, and in general relaxed and rested. Jayesh read a whole Golden Age novel on his tablet.

On the third afternoon, Cayde called to check in. "So, how's the fishing?"

"Great so far," Jayesh replied into the tiny radio inside his tent. "Bass, catfish, crappie, perch ..."

"Wish I was there," Cayde said. "I've been wrangling politics. Turns out, the Consensus is pretty upset about Mars. But they can't suppress the news forever - I mean, Rasputin's war sats are pretty obviously in orbit again. Shane wasn't the only Guardian there. We lost two down in the tunnels, you know. People want to know what happened. Hideo hasn't let up about Shane, so stay out there a few more days."

"Copy that," Jayesh said. "Thanks, commander."

"Don't 'thanks, commander' me," Cayde replied. "Name's Cayde-6."

Cayde signed off. Jayesh crawled out of his tent to find Shane sitting outside, listening in.

"Guess we'll stay here a bit longer," Shane said. "I swear, Jayesh, I'm not going back if they're going to reboot me. I'll sneak Cindra out here and we'll live off the land. Light, I miss her."

Jayesh gazed across the sparkling lake, troubled. "Two Guardians died?"

Shane didn't answer for a while. The silence stretched longer and longer. Finally he said, "If I tell you this classified stuff, you keep it dead secret, understand?"

Jayesh nodded.

"There was a worm," Shane said. "One of the Great Worms, although he was more disgusting than great, if you ask me. Named Xol. We tried to draw him out and he ..." Shane trailed off.

Jayesh recognized the hesitation. Shane had been through something as awful as Jayesh's experience with the Taken. Probably worse.

"You don't have to tell me," Jayesh said.

"He cursed us," Shane whispered. "He took our ghosts and quenched our Light. His voice, Jay. His voice was like hearing death itself speak. I can't even ... " He trailed off, staring at nothing. After a moment, he shook himself and went on, "The cavern caved in. We should have been able to dig out. But we were too stunned. My mind was just ... " Again Shane paused, moving one hand in circles beside his head. "But fresh reboot, you know? I recovered, but by that time, the other two Guardians were dead. I never did find their ghosts. I walked out, somehow. My ghost found me."

He held up a hand and summoned Valor. They gazed at each other with that sweet, intense look Guardians and ghosts shared so often.

"Separated," Phoenix muttered, phasing into sight and hovering so close to Jayesh that his shell touched his cheek. "Traveler's Light, I can't imagine a worse fate. How did the worm do it?"

Valor lifted his gaze from his Guardian. "He spoke, and it was so. I can't explain it. We were in his Darkness, and he was stronger than us there."

Jayesh cupped his hand around Phoenix and held him close. He'd nearly lost his ghost once, and the thought of a higher being tearing him away brought back his terror of the Taken all over again.

Shane gently lifted Valor out of the air and rested his forehead against the little robot for a moment. Then he released him and spoke, gazing at his ghost. "Hideo claimed I was traumatized. But I'm not. I helped kill that stupid worm. Nothing like a little revenge killing to clear the mind. Really, Rasputin did it and I only aimed. But I don't need a reboot. Not this time."

Anxiety made Jayesh restless. He paced around the camp. "I don't know what to do about any of this. Want to hike? We can follow the lake shore."

Shane jumped to his feet. "Good idea. I'm bringing my rifle in case we meet a bear."

Walking among the trees cleared Jayesh's mind. Having had time to rest, he now recognized the way stress felt as it crept through him again. He drew deep breaths and gazed at the sky and water, focusing on peaceful, good things. There was no point in remembering being buried alive, how badly it had hurt, trying to scream and finding the breath crushed from his lungs.

They walked in silence for a long time, keeping alert for enemies out of habit. They startled a flock of ducks from a stand of cattails near the shore, and once a fox slipped across their path and disappeared into the woods.

After a few miles, Phoenix said, "Hey, Valor, are you picking up a strange signature to the west?"

Both Guardians halted. Shane's ghost phased into sight and gazed around. "Yes, I see what you mean."

"What kind of signature?" Jayesh said, reaching for his rifle out of habit. It wasn't there, but he was carrying the bloodthirsty sidearm Drang. He drew it and gripped it in both hands.

Shane squinted into the trees. As an Exo, he carried his HUD in his head at all times, with or without a helmet. "It looks like ... buildings. A town? Could be Fallen."

"Let's check it out," Jayesh said, although the cowardly part of him wanted to creep back to camp and pretend this never happened.

Shane drew his rifle, and together the two Guardians picked their way into the woods. Valor phased out of sight. Phoenix tried to keep pace with Jayesh, until he entangled himself in a dead tree branch and had to phase to escape.

"Are you laughing at me?" Phoenix demanded inside Jayesh's head.

Jayesh tried to hide his smile with a cough. "Of course I wasn't."

They walked a quarter of a mile through the trackless woods, picking their way around broken trees, large boulders, and tangled masses of brambles covered in berries and thorns.

"Those are blackberries," Valor pointed out. "They're supposed to be delicious."

Jayesh tried one. "If we don't get attacked by something, I'll collect a few kilos of these for dessert tonight."

"That might not be a problem," Shane said with an odd tone in his voice.

They had reached the edge of the woods. Before them stretched a few acres of open farmland, planted with wheat and barley. Across the fields stood a fort with walls of logs, cut into sharpened points at the tops. Outside the walls, a group of humans worked in a smaller field, tending vegetables. A goat bleated somewhere.

"I don't believe it," Jayesh exclaimed. "A town? I thought all humans had fled to the Last City!"

"Maybe these people didn't get the message," Shane said. "They're awfully remote. And they look pretty self-sufficient. If we get closer, they might shoot us as a matter of course."

Jayesh wanted to see it closer, experience a real town that wasn't a part of a huge city. "How do we tell them we're friendly?"

"Are we?" Shane said. "We're Guardians. I'm an Exo. For all they know, we've come to force them to join the City."

"But we're not, are we?" Jayesh said.

Shane shook his head. "Of course not. But they don't know that."

They followed the edge of the barley field until they found a rutted dirt road leading to the fort's front gate. The people outside saw them coming, ran inside, and the gates slammed shut.

"That's reassuring," Jayesh muttered.

"Probably used to seeing Fallen," Shane replied. "Well, which of us goes first and takes a few bullets? You're going to frighten them less."

Jayesh looked down at his tunic and pants. No armor whatsoever. "Here, hold Drang. If I'm going to do this, I might as well go unarmed. I still have my Light."

Shane accepted the sidearm in silence, and hung back as Jayesh approached the gate. Several men looked over the walls of the fort, all wearing scavenged armor and carrying old submachine guns and rifles.

"Look at their faces," Phoenix said in Jayesh's head. "They're terrified."

Jay raised his hands and halted. "I'm unarmed," he called. "We come peacefully."

The men aimed their weapons at him.

"Maybe they don't speak English," Phoenix muttered. "How's your Russian?"

"I'm better at Mandarin, honestly," Jayesh thought. He repeated his message in Mandarin. Then he added in an undertone in English, "Please don't speak Russian, I'm terrible at it."

The men on the wall muttered to each other. Finally, one called down in heavily-accented English, "We know you're both Risen. We saw your ships. We've seen your robots. Why do you come?"

"Why did we come, again?" Phoenix whispered. "If they call us Risen, that's a bad sign."

Jayesh smiled at the men, trying to show that he was friendly. "Honestly? We're on holiday. I've never seen a town before, and I wanted to meet you. That's all."

"You'll hand us over to your Risen brethren at the City," the man said. "The bloody Warlords."

"Warlords?" Phoenix exclaimed in Jayesh's head. "Jay, they've been hiding here since the end of the Golden Age!"

"No wonder they're scared," Jayesh replied in his head.

To the men, he said, "No, we won't. We're called Guardians now. Protectors. If you wish to remain secret, we'll keep silent."

The guards conferred again. Finally, one said, "You, Risen, may enter. Your mechanical companion must remain outside."

Phoenix relayed this to Valor, who told Shane. Shane nodded and retreated down the dirt road to the edge of the woods, where he sat in the shade to keep watch.

As the gates creaked open, Phoenix muttered, "I wonder why they trust us so quickly? They've spent generations hiding from us."

"I think we're about to find out," Jayesh thought.


	3. Cursed

Keeping his hands out, Jayesh cautiously stepped through the gate. Five of the armed guards met him inside. They were tough-looking, bearded men with hard, calloused hands. They covered him with their weapons, but as they saw him up close, they frowned and muttered to each other in some language Jayesh didn't know.

One of them said in broken English, "You can't be Risen. You are child."

"Don't trust his looks," another argued. "It could be a trick."

As the men argued, Jayesh gazed around the village. From where he stood, he looked down a narrow street with tiny wooden houses built along it. All the houses had roofs made of grass. Thatch, the old books called it. Each house had a barrel of water outside it. Many also had a sort of wooden trough filled with flowers. Women and children peeked out the doors at him. It smelled of animals, woodsmoke, and sewer. Yet the people and street looked clean enough.

A woman emerged from the nearest house and walked toward them. She wore a long, homespun dress and a cloth wrapped around her hair. Her fists were clenched. At first Jayesh thought she was angry - then he realized she was shaking.

"May - may I speak to the Risen?" she asked.

The men turned and gazed at her. Tension filled the group - something was happening here that Jayesh didn't understand. One by one, the men stood aside, lowering their rifles.

The woman approached Jayesh and knelt at his feet. "Please help me!"

He stared at her, nonplussed. "Uh ... what do you want me to do? And stand up, please."

She did, and studied his face. He was reminded of Hawthorn - the dark complexion and shrewd eyes, currently overlaid by ... fear, maybe.

"My family is accursed," she said. "My husband and brother - they have fallen to it. I fear that I am next. Please, please break this curse! You are Risen! You have the power!"

"Accursed how?" Jayesh asked. "I'm not much good at ... lifting curses."

"Come," she said, beckoning. "I will show you."

One of the men shook his head violently. "Natasha! No! It is too dangerous."

"Don't take my hope from me," Natasha snapped. "Why else would a Risen appear on our doorstep at such a time?"

Jayesh revised his opinion of her. He'd thought she was afraid of the guards, or him. But no ... she was afraid of this curse, whatever it was. And the guards were afraid of her.

Natasha beckoned to him and hurried away, along the inside of the wall. Jayesh followed her, and the guards followed him at a safe distance.

"Phoenix," he thought, "know anything about curses?"

"The Hive use magic and rituals," Phoenix said. "But I've picked up no sign of Hive in the area. Possibly some ancient superstition?"

"Or an illness," Jayesh replied. "I do have my healing rift, if that's all it is."

Natasha halted beside a wooden platform built into the ground. She pointed at a trapdoor in the middle. "Open it. Look upon my husband and brother. The curse has claimed them."

"Isolation pit," Phoenix observed. "My bet's on the illness theory."

Jayesh stepped onto the platform and cautiously lifted the trapdoor. Beneath it was nothing but darkness. "Hello?" he called.

Something rushed into view and stared up at him. Something human-shaped with burning white outlines and a white glow on its forehead that was not light. It stared up at him and made an inhuman snarling sound.

Jayesh slammed the door shut and leaped backward, adrenaline surging through him. He reached for the weapons he wasn't carrying.

"Traveler's Light!" Phoenix swore in his head.

"You see the curse," Natasha said.

"They're Taken," Jayesh whispered. "How - how are they Taken?" The horror he had been avoiding crawled through him afresh. His entire body urged him to leap over the wall and run for his life.

Natasha studied his face desperately. "You know of this curse! Taken, you call it?"

"They can't get out, right?" Jayesh looked wildly around. "The men should be standing guard. Taken can pass through solid objects. You have to shoot them."

"That is my husband and brother!" Natasha cried.

"Not anymore, they're not," Jayesh said. "How did this happen?"

"The banshee came first," Natasha whispered. "Screams in the night. We hid from it. Our weapons had no effect on it. It opened the Maw and took my brother first. The next night, my husband. Then they returned as these ... monsters. We trapped them in the hopes they could be cured."

Jayesh's entire being wanted to shriek in terror. He clamped his mouth shut to keep from disgracing himself. These villagers were watching. If he wanted to make a good impression as a Guardian, he couldn't run away screaming.

"I need to talk to my friend," he said at last.

The guards let him out of the gate. Natasha watched him go, wringing her hands.

Jayesh forced himself to walk sedately up the dirt road, although his racing heart made him want to run. It seemed to take years to reach the edge of the woods, where Shane awaited him.

"Our ghosts relayed everything," Shane said, rising to his feet. "Taken? Seriously?"

Jayesh nodded, ducked behind a tree trunk, and curled up at its foot. His mouth felt paralyzed. Again that Taken looked up at him through the trapdoor ... and the human Taken on Io stared into his face with eyes of darkness ... were they the same humans?

Phoenix phased into sight and studied him anxiously. "Jay," he whispered, "don't succumb to fear. It blocks your connection to the Light. And me."

Shane stepped around the tree and gazed down at them. "Oh," he said in an odd tone. "That's why the doctor told you to rest."

Jayesh didn't answer.

Shane kicked aside a fallen branch and stamped some grass flat so he could sit down facing Jayesh. Valor phased into being over his left shoulder. Together, they watched Jayesh and Phoenix.

"You heard Natasha," Phoenix said. "They think it's a curse."

"From a banshee?" Shane said. "Val, what's a banshee?"

"Ancient myth," Valor replied. "It was supposed to be a screaming spirit like a flying woman with long hair. She heralded death."

Jayesh raised his head. Understanding lessened his fear a little. "A Hive wizard?"

"Could be," Shane agreed. "The Hive do have a small presence on Earth, though mostly they've only been seen in Old Russia. For this one to be so close to the Last City ... and raising Taken ... it must be working closely with whoever replaced Oryx. You know, the Hive god we killed a few years ago."

"They're turning this village into an army," Jayesh exclaimed. "Shane, this is bad! The City is still weak from the Cabal's attack. They say we'll barely survive the winter, even with strict rationing. We can't withstand an assault from the Taken."

Shane nodded slowly. "We could call for backup. But these people want to be kept secret. How secret would they be if a couple of elite fire teams showed up?"

"That leaves us." Jayesh dragged a hand through his hair and down his face. "I don't know if I can do this. The doctor called it trauma. I just ... freeze up."

Shane gazed down at his rifle, running his finger along the barrel. "I can't do this alone, Jayesh. Not if we're dealing with some kind of Hive wizard with Taken powers."

Jayesh stared at the leaves beneath him, humiliated. He was a Guardian. He should be braver than this. But he couldn't stop his middle from quivering at the thought of the monsters that used to be human ... and of what must have turned them.

"How do we fight it?" he asked at last.

Shane grinned. "With Light, of course."

* * *

 

After some discussion, the Guardians decided to move their camp and ships closer to the village. Finding a spot clear enough to land was tricky, but the villagers let them use a fallow field a short distance from the fort. Many interested children peered over the tops of the walls, pointing at the ships and chattering in excitement.

"At least we're making a good impression," Jayesh muttered as they hauled rolled-up tents and camp gear to the lake shore.

"Maybe some of them will follow us to the City someday," Shane said. "Sounds like they've lived in fear of us so long, they're really behind the times."

"After we get this problem resolved," Jayesh said, "we ought to check in with them every so often. I'd hate to save them from Taken only to have the Fallen butcher them."

"If this reboot nonsense keeps up," Shane said, "I'll bring Cindra out here and settle down. She's an Exo mechanic, so not only could she keep me fixed up, but we could really improve these people's lives."

Jayesh nodded. What a noble thought. Of course, the Vanguard would see Shane as a deserter and probably put a bounty on him, but there was a good chance he could disappear out here. The wilderness was so vast, they'd overlooked this town's existence for centuries.

If they survived a fight with a Hive wizard with Taken powers.

As the sun sank and the day cooled, Jayesh's dread grew. There were no lights out here, no way to see a prowling alien that flew through the air without a sound. If not for their ghosts, they'd never have warning at all.

They showed up at the village gates in full combat gear at nightfall. The guards dubiously let them in, but Natasha had been waiting for them. She beamed at the sight of Shane in his plate armor, carrying a huge auto rifle. Then she looked at Jayesh in his combat robe, and her smile faded. "I thought you were a great warrior, Risen. Are you a priest?"

"I'm Guardian Jayesh," he replied, "and this is Guardian Shane-5. I'm a warlock." He held up one hand and let fiery Light lick his gloved fingers.

The guards and Natasha stepped back with a collective gasp.

"That made an impression," Phoenix said in his head. "Particularly since the Light is about fifty lumens brighter than the torches they're using."

"Now," Shane said, hefting his rifle. "Where does this banshee first appear?"

Natasha pointed toward the north end of the fort, the one closest to the trees. "The screams begin there. As it approaches, our torches go dark, both outside and in our homes. Each time, it has come straight to my house, near the wall on that side. The doors and windows are closed and locked, yet it enters anyway."

"Yeah, the bastards do that," Shane said. "It's called a Hive wizard. Alien race that worships death. It's not a spirit or a banshee or whatever, and they don't like bullets."

"But we fired upon it!" Natasha exclaimed. "It did nothing!"

"Did you break its shield?" Shane asked.

Natasha only shook her head in confusion.

"They have a shield around them like a bubble," Shane explained. "Repels bullets, to a point. We've dealt with them before, right, Jayesh?"

"Right," Jayesh said, projecting more confidence than he felt. In his last fight with the Hive, he'd fought thralls while his team battled a wizard. While he knew wizards could be killed, he'd never actually pulled the trigger, himself.

As long as they only fought an alien, he could cope. It was the Taken he couldn't handle.

"So," Shane said, pointing his rifle at the dark sky. "Everyone, lock yourselves indoors. Keep your weapons handy. If the wizard shows up in your house, pour bullets into it until the shield pops, then aim for the eyes. Yell for us Guardians. We'll be patrolling your streets."

The frightened guards nodded in agreement, then scattered, some back to their posts on the wall, others to spread the news throughout the village.

Jayesh and Shane explored the village, familiarizing themselves with its layout. It was laid out in a crooked grid, with an open square in the middle containing a large communal well. Everything was built out of wood.

"I'm a Dawnblade," Jayesh muttered. "I might burn this place down by accident."

"So be careful with your damn fire sword," Shane replied. "I've been a Sentinel Titan for years. Void energy's not flammable, but boy, does it cut down Hive. Using their own power against them."

"If I freeze up," Jayesh said, "just ... use your power as much as you need. I may not be able to use my super if I've lost touch with the Light."

Shane studied him, his green eyes glowing brightly in the near-darkness. "You're stronger than that, kid."

This blunt, straightforward confidence both shamed Jayesh and strengthened his resolve. If Shane believed in him, then he wouldn't let him down. He tried to focus his thoughts on the Traveler and the Light, but part of him was waiting for the heralding shriek of the wizard.

Their circuit of the village brought them back around to the trapdoor in the ground where the Taken were housed. It was eerily silent. Jayesh stared at the trapdoor. Had it opened a fraction as they walked by? Or had it been a trick of the nearby torchlight?

Shane followed his gaze. "So that's where they put them. We should shoot them before they escape."

Jayesh nodded. "But Natasha can't know. I think she -"

A screech split the night, making both of them jump. It wasn't human - closer to an animal noise, but a Hive screech contained phrases and commands too rapid for the human ear to decipher.

Both Guardians spun toward the sound. The darkness beyond the fort wall was absolute, but the guards were pointing and aiming their weapons. The wizard was approaching from the north, as Natasha had said. Their ghosts detected it at once.

Behind them, the Taken thumped against the wooden frame around the trapdoor.

"It's calling them," Phoenix said in Jayesh's mind.

The torches around them suddenly guttered and went out. Night engulfed the houses and streets. Jayesh called Light to his fingertips and held it above his head. "Stay phased, ghosts," he told them. "We don't want you getting killed while being flashlights."

"It's after Natasha, all right," Shane said, and broke into a run toward her house.


	4. Maw

Jayesh launched himself into the air in a warlock glide.

His leap carried him above the thatched roofs and walls. He directed the Light like a spotlight beam, and illuminated the floating figure of the wizard as it flew over the wall. It was a big one, twice as tall as a human, with flowing, robe-like filaments around it, two arms, and horns growing from its head. Its three green eyes glinted in the darkness. It glared at Jayesh in pure hate.

He lifted his pulse rifle and fired.

The bullets sparked off a bubble shield around the wizard, making it glow purple. A void-powered shield. It would soak up a whole magazine's worth of bullets before breaking, unless Shane shattered it with his void super.

The wizard flew down toward a single house, dissolved into black mist, and passed through the thatched roof. Jayesh dropped to the ground and ran for the door. "Shane! In here!"

But the Exo was back up the street, battling the two Taken men. They had escaped their prison and were trying to join the wizard, sliding and creeping around Shane's defenses. Shane was reluctant to fire his rifle at street level - the bullets would pierce the thin wooden walls of the houses. He fought the Taken hand to hand instead, unable to land a killing blow on the glowing blob that obscured their faces.

Jayesh yanked Natasha's door open.

It was pitch black inside. Screams and thumps reached his ears - a struggle was going on. He raised his handful of Light, but it couldn't penetrate the shadow. So he drew on his connection with the Traveler and summoned his super charge.

Fiery Light engulfed him, appearing in his hand as a molten golden sword. Wings of Light spread from his shoulders. He sprang into the darkness like an avenging angel.

The darkness gave way slowly, as if he'd plunged into a thick fog. The wizard's presence filled the main room, its robe filaments touching all four walls. It grasped Natasha by the throat in one hand. With its other hand, it pointed at the wall, muttering in its guttural language.

Natasha's terrified eyes reflected Jayesh's Light. Her lips formed the words, "Help me!"

Jayesh slashed his sword through the wizard's shield. The horned head turned toward him, and the mouth widened in a smile, exposing jagged teeth. It smiled as he slashed its body in half, and it smiled as it died.

The alien's black essence swirled around the room, then dove into a patch of darkness impervious to Jayesh's fiery glow. As he caught Natasha halfway through collapsing, Jayesh realized what he was seeing.

The wizard had opened one of those black tears in reality. The wall had become a portal, hissing as the room's atmosphere drifted through in a brisk breeze. The Light billowed off Jayesh, the portal drinking up the sword, the wings, the Light, until his power was gone.

"Jay," Phoenix said in his head, "I feel strange."

Natasha rose and took a step toward the portal, then another, staring as if entranced. Jayesh grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the door. "No! It'll Take you!"

His own strength flagged as the super charge was dragged from him. How had it done that? Those portals had never affected him before. Cold crept through him. This was how humans were Taken - they simply walked through the portal and into the embrace of the Darkness, itself.

Voices mumbled from inside the portal. Human voices. "Natasha!" one called. "Help us, please!"

"They're inside," Natasha whispered. "Paul! Hiram!" She fought Jayesh, struggling to break his grip.

"It's a trick," Jayesh said, his head beginning to spin. "It's not them."

"Jay," Phoenix whimpered in his head. "Jay, I'm losing you. Don't go!"

Natasha dragged Jayesh a step closer to the portal, then another. The voices grew louder. "Just one step inside," a man's voice begged. "Give me your hand, Natasha! Save me!"

Jayesh suddenly had a blinding moment of realization. Natasha was being drawn through that portal, and she would take him with her. He might have to release her in order to save himself.

"No!" He tried to haul her toward the house's open door.

But she resisted, struggling, kicking and clawing at him. "Let me go! I can save them!"

"It's not them!" he cried. How was she so strong? He was a Guardian, and a human woman was fighting him with the strength of a disarmed Fallen.

Her fingernails raked his face, scoring his eyelids. She twisted her wrist out of his hand. Jayesh recoiled. She'd nearly clawed his eyes out. He reached after her, but it was too late. Natasha sprinted across the room and hurled herself into the portal.

She vanished without a sound. No scream. No voice. Nothing. And the portal remained open.

"No!" Jayesh cried, blinking his torn eyelids. "Shane! She jumped!"

"Busy!" his friend's voice replied from just outside. He was still battling the Taken, which had forced him backward.

"Get away from it, Jay," Phoenix whispered in his head. "The Darkness ... it's isolating this whole area. We're cut off."

Jayesh reached for his connection with the Traveler and felt nothing. The Light was gone. He struggled to the door, struggling to breathe, drawing his sidearm.

Outside, Shane had managed to destroy one of the Taken men using only his fists. He fought the remaining one hand to hand, his metal fists glancing off the semi-solid form. The Taken protected its vulnerable head and hit back with shocking strength, keeping up a guttural mutter of syllables that might have been human language at some point.

Jayesh aimed at the glowing spot on the forehead. As it delivered a stunning blow to Shane's breastplate, Jay fired three times in quick succession.

The Taken shrieked, collapsed into formless black, and disappeared in a spiral in the air.

Shane turned to Jayesh with a relieved grin. Jay opened his mouth to explain what had happened. But a new voice spoke from the portal - a voice shaped by thought and malice, a voice that could never be produced by human vocal chords.

YOU

HAVE

NO

LIGHT

The words beat into their brains, flaying away sanity. Jayesh and Shane clutched their heads. Their ghosts screamed. The night around them seemed to deepen.

COME

TO

US

GUAR

DI

ANS

The command dragged both of them, step by staggering step, back through the doorway of that accursed house. Back toward the gaping maw of the waiting portal.

Jayesh struggled for control, seeking the shreds of his own mind. He grabbed Shane's arm. They managed to halt in the middle of the room.

"It can't take Guardians," he panted. The thought seemed to come from long ago and far away.

"The Light," Shane said hoarsely, his green eyes flickering. "It protects us. But without it-"

The black portal crept wider, eating the wall and stretching across the ceiling. The Darkness wanted them, reaching out, seeking to engulf them.

Jayesh had reached a place beyond terror. Somewhere, his body was screaming at him to run, or fight, or do anything but stagger into that blackness. But his mind wouldn't work. Darkness filled him. He couldn't think.

"The Worms," Shane whispered, clutching his head. "That's them."

"I can't find the Light," Jayesh gasped. "It took my super charge." All gone, all extinguished. If he passed through that portal, it would quench him and remake him out of Darkness, bent forever to its will. He flailed in the dark, reaching for an anchor, a rope, anything.

Then he found Phoenix.

His ghost was still phased inside him, his spark the only Light Jayesh still felt. But he was unconscious, silenced by the voice of Darkness.

"Find your ghost," Jayesh whispered to Shane. "Mine - he's hurt."

"Mine, too," Shane panted. "I can almost - almost reach my super through him. Can you - Jay, can you loan me your Light?"

The only Light Jayesh had was Phoenix. In his mind, he cupped the little spark in both hands, breathing on it like kindling that wouldn't quite catch fire.

_Phoenix, I named you that for a reason. Do you remember?_

A memory drifted to the surface of both their minds - Phoenix's sacrificing of his own shell to save his Guardian. The way Phoenix had protected his dead Guardian's spark until it was safe to resurrect him.

_Phoenix, you thought I wouldn't remember that, but I do._

The ghost's consciousness seeped back into him, his spark brightening.

YOUR

LIGHT

IS

DEAD

The voice of the Worms beat into Jayesh and Phoenix like armored fists, infinitely cruel. Phoenix's Light waned. Jayesh forgot what he had been thinking, his focus shattered by the onslaught of Darkness.

But it didn't crush him as it had before. Like a balloon shoved underwater, Jayesh didn't sink as deep as the Darkness wanted. He bobbed back to the surface, orienting himself to Phoenix's spark. He wrapped his consciousness around it, protecting it with his whole being.

_Phoenix, the Darkness can't touch the Light._

The ghost's spark brightened again. His voice brushed Jayesh's awareness, faint and small. "The Light shone in the Darkness, and the Darkness didn't understand it."

HUMANS

EMBRACE

DARKNESS

The blows struck again, staggering Jayesh. But this time, he sheltered Phoenix from the onslaught.

The ghost's Light flared brighter in defiance. "Humans also have the Light! They've had it since antiquity! Jayesh is blessed of the Light and you can never touch that!"

SILENCE

FRAGMENT

OF

THE

DYING

MIND

It battered Jayesh until he had to kneel to keep himself from fainting. But he and Shane had moved no closer to the portal. Shane was doubled over, breathing heavily, fighting a similar battle.

Phoenix spoke from Jayesh's protection. "When we are weakest, then we are strong, for the Light shines brightest in deepest Darkness."

As he spoke, Jayesh felt the thinnest thread of connection to the Traveler once more. He seized it with all his might, grabbed Shane's arm, and pushed the Light into him.

Shane inhaled, lifting his head. "Not my strength ... but the Light in me!" He stood erect and threw his head back. Purple light sprang into being, rippling over his body and clothing. Like Jayesh's sword of Light, a round shield of Light appeared on Shane's arm. He flung it with all his strength straight into the black portal.

The purple shield spun away into the blackness and vanished. Then, impossibly far away in the dimension beyond the portal, something exploded in a burst of purple lightning. The inhuman voice roared until Jayesh's vision blurred and threatened to black out completely. Then the portal pulled inward, ripping away from the ceiling and walls, until it swirled together and vanished like a slain Taken.

Jayesh came to himself, still kneeling on the floor. Shane stood beside him, the last of his super charge fading away in glimmers.

"Well," Shane said to break the silence. "That was a hell of a thing."

Jayesh nodded and gently released his mental hold on his ghost. "Phoenix, are you all right?"

Phoenix phased into sight and scanned Jayesh. "Don't worry about me, Jay. Valor, if you're well enough, tend to your Guardian."

Phoenix opened his shell, expanding into a globe of Light with his core in the center, and poured extra healing into Jayesh. The distressed, half-melted feeling departed from Jayesh's muscles. He slowly stood up. His head still rang from the voice of the Darkness, but already the words it had spoken were fading like a half-remembered dream. He wasn't particularly afraid anymore, only sad - sad that he hadn't been able to save Natasha.

Nearby, Valor appeared, limping a little in midair, his eye flickering. Shane caught him as he dropped out of the air.

Jayesh jerked his head at his ghost, who flew over and healed Valor, too.

"Thanks," Valor said. "Shane, it was as bad as Mars. But at least it didn't separate us."

"You did fine, little light," Shane murmured, stroking his ghost's shell. "If not for you, I never could have reached my super."

Jayesh tried not to watch this private moment. Instead, he watched his own ghost close his shell, hiding the Light within. Phoenix flew up to Jayesh's face and gazed into his eyes. "I have the best Guardian," he whispered.

Jayesh smiled, then looked down. "I didn't save Natasha. I should have."

Shane looked at him. "The portal took her?"

"She jumped in!" Phoenix said indignantly, before Jayesh could respond. "It called to her with the voices of her family, saying she could save them. Jay tried to drag her back, but she wouldn't have it. She tore up Jayesh's face to break his hold. His eyes, even!"

Shane glanced from the angry ghost to the downcast Guardian. "Kid, don't be so hard on yourself. She made her choice."

"I should have tried harder," Jayesh said. "Knocked her out or something. But it happened so fast. I couldn't stop her."

Shane nodded. "That's how I lost Maxim to the snipers. They got him and his ghost a split second apart. I read my report I'd given on that mission. I don't remember it, and it still makes me sick. Things happen, and you can't control it. It's not your fault."

Jayesh nodded. "Maybe I'll believe that later. Right now, I feel like it is my fault."

"Let me do the talking, then," Shane said. "These people are going to be pissed that we didn't save her, even if we did kill the Taken and the wizard."

"I killed the wizard," Jayesh said in surprise. "With my Dawnblade."

Shane slapped him on the back. "See, you're a good fighter. For a warlock."


	5. Resolution

Shane told the story of what happened to the guards, while Jayesh stood in subdued silence. Surprisingly, the guards treated Natasha's disappearance with resignation. They really had believed that she was cursed, and were glad that her and her Taken family were gone.

Jayesh and Shane returned to their camp and crawled into their tents. Jayesh lay in his sleeping bag, still dressed in his armored robe with his guns piled beside him, listening to the crickets chirping all around. The darkness of the simple night had nothing to do with the Darkness of living death.

He folded his hands on his chest and gazed at the canvas overhead. "Phoenix?"

"Yes, Jay?" his ghost replied from his phased state.

"I'm not afraid of Taken anymore."

"Well." Phoenix didn't seem to know how to take this. "I'm glad to hear it."

"I'm not worried about being Taken, either." Jayesh smiled. "It's funny, I can barely remember anything the Darkness said. But I remember what you said. About the Light."

"Old memories, that," Phoenix said thoughtfully. "From when I was still part of the Traveler. I have the impression that I was quoting pieces of a conversation it had with the Darkness ages and ages ago."

"I have the best ghost," Jayesh said with conviction. "Do you realize you smarted off to the Great Worms themselves?"

"Only because you sheltered me," Phoenix said in a small voice. "Hearing them directly was killing me. But when you took the brunt of it, I was able to think straight. My poor Guardian. You were so hurt."

"I didn't realize," Jayesh said. "I only felt weak."

"You were crushed inside. You would not have left that house alive without my healing." Phoenix's spark touched Jayesh's with deep affection. "You may not think so, but I have the best Guardian."

Jayesh lay there in silence for a while, the tension slowly leaving his muscles, his ghost warming his heart with a steady flow of love. "You know," he thought, "I couldn't save Natasha. But I might be able to save Shane."

"I'll help you plan," Phoenix replied. "I've been thinking about his situation, too. We'll have to go about it very carefully."

* * *

Shane and Jayesh had a long conversation the next morning. Then they talked to the elders of the village about Shane being allowed to live there as a resident defender. Having saved them from the Hive wizard and Taken, the elders were open to this, as long as it didn't attract the attention of more Risen.

After that, Shane went to his ship and called his girlfriend, Cindra. They talked for two hours. Jayesh kept busy picking berries and fishing, letting his stress drain away once more.

By that afternoon, the plan was laid. Cindra agreed to marry Shane and live in the wilds, on the condition that she be allowed to sneak back to the City sometimes for supplies and contact with friends.

Then it was time for Jayesh's hand in the plot.

He flew his ship back to the Last City, but instead of landing in the Tower hanger, he used one of the City's small municipal airports. From there, he picked up Cindra and her luggage, and quietly flew her back out to the village. Shane and Cindra's reunion was affectionate and a little too warm for Jayesh. He left them to settle into the village, packed up the camping gear, and returned to the Tower to give his actual report.

This was the delicate part. Jayesh refused to actually lie about where his partner has vanished to, but there were a lot of details he could conveniently omit.

"Back already?" Cayde said, as Jayesh turned in the fishing tackle.

"Yep, unfortunately," Jayesh said. "I brought you this." He handed Cayde a sealed food container.

Cayde popped it open. Three fish fillets lay on a refrigeration pack inside.

Cayde grinned as well as an Exo could, which on his particular face, was quite a lot. "The trip wasn't a complete waste, I see."

"Remember how we were trying to de-stress?" Jayesh said. "We ran across a Hive wizard who was raising a Taken army."

From there, he told the story, letting Cayde think they had run across an outpost of Fallen who were being turned. Cayde listened soberly. Jayesh then added how, afterward, Shane had gone to his ship to patrol the area and never come back, but his ship registered as crashed.

Which it did, now that Shane and Cindra had dismantled the electronics.

After Jayesh finished, Cayde leaned against a support pole and thought for a while. "Funny how he disappears when they want to reboot him. Funny how you don't disappear with him."

Jayesh didn't say anything, but his face warmed.

"Hey, it's fine," Cayde said, raising a hand. "They're dead-set on rebooting him, no matter how much talking I did. If he goes missing in action, nobody will ask questions. Your report is plausible enough on paper, the Consensus will buy it. But you're a rotten liar, kid."

Jayesh smiled a little. Cayde may have picked up on that, but he'd never guess that Jayesh was concealing the existence of renegade humans, too. "Thanks, I guess."

"How's your trauma?" Cayde asked.

Jayesh gazed at the floor for a moment. "When we fought the wizard, it opened a portal that Took someone right in front of me. Then this voice spoke to Shane and me. It stunned us. It cut off our Light and nearly forced us into the portal, too."

Cayde straightened, his blue eyes fixed on Jayesh's face. "Go on."

"My ghost stood up to it," Jayesh went on, giving Phoenix a proud look. "I can't really remember what it said to us. I forgot as soon as it was over. But Shane used his super and threw a shield of Light into the portal. Something blew up inside, and the portal closed. But ... ever since then, I haven't been afraid. Not like I was."

"Make sure you tell Ikora," Cayde said. "Sounds like what happened on Mars. They're getting bolder, trying to Take Guardians. Keep this secret, all right? You don't want the Consensus going after you, too."

Jayesh gave him a sad smile. "I'm getting used to keeping the truth secret."

* * *

"Are you all right?" Kari asked.

She had found Jayesh sitting on a low stone wall outside a noodle shop, an empty bowl beside him, gazing up at the Traveler. He looked small and alone. She sat beside him. "Heard you just got back from patrol."

Jayesh nodded and gave her a quick smile. "I'm better, now. Had a chance to rest out there. Learned a little about wilderness survival. Kind of got to play Hunter."

Kari studied her team mate, sensing the sadness that lay below the surface. "What's wrong?"

"I tried to save someone," Jayesh said faintly. "And I couldn't. So I was sitting here, asking the Traveler about it."

Kari glanced at the fractured orb in the sky, surrounded by rings of orbiting fragments. Goosebumps rose on her arms. "Did it say anything?"

Jayesh's sad smile hurt her heart. "He said that I have not the strength to face such Darkness alone."

"It spoke to you," Kari whispered. "The Traveler actually spoke to you?"

"Sure. It always answers me," Jayesh said, bewildered by her surprise. "Usually without words, though. It'll give me extra Light, sometimes. Doesn't it talk to you?"

Kari shook her head. Then she looked up at the Traveler. "But then ... I've never actually tried to speak to it. How do you do it?"

"The way you think to your ghost," Jayesh replied. "Only ... you kind of think to the Light instead. That's all."

Kari hesitantly reached for her own Light, but stopped short of speaking to it.

"The Traveler already knows who you are," Jayesh added. "It knows all its Guardians by name. And their ghosts. Plus, you've already met it. When it healed you."

That was right. Kari reached for her Light again. Very hesitantly, she thought, "Hello, Traveler."

Her Light brightened in response. Distinctly, in her mind, a voice that was not her ghost said, "Guardian Kari."

Kari jumped so hard that she toppled off the wall. Jayesh laughed and helped her up. "See?"

Kari didn't say anything. Breathing hard, she looked up at the Traveler, then back at Jayesh. "How did ...? What ...?"

"Don't be afraid," Jayesh said gently. "It made you. It gives you your power. I only wish ..." He trailed off, gazing at the sky again.

"Wish what?" Kari said, sitting beside him again.

"I wish I could have saved Natasha," he said, so quietly she barely heard him. "I've asked that the Traveler guide her spark out of the Darkness, but he didn't know if it could be done. Saving her may have been beyond my strength, but I wish I could have."

"Natasha?" Kari said blankly. "Saved her from what?"

"A human I met," Jayesh said. "She was Taken. I couldn't save her."

So that was why he looked so sad. Kari couldn't imagine anything more horrible, or more guilt-inducing. She put an arm around his shoulders. "If the Traveler told you it's not your fault, then, really, it's not your fault. The Darkness that makes Taken is stronger than us, stronger than Oryx. Probably stronger than the Traveler."

"The Traveler was never meant to fight," Jayesh said. "It's a healer. We have to fight for it. I wish I was stronger."

"You are strong," Kari whispered. "You're the only Guardian I know who talks to the Traveler the way you do." She hugged him. "It's all right."

He surprised her by leaning his head on her shoulder. "Thanks," he whispered. "Someday ... I'll save people from the Darkness. I'll be a healer, like the Traveler." He lifted his head with a sudden grin. "And next time we go on patrol, I'll teach you how to fish."

Kari smiled a wobbly smile, not sure if she wanted to cry or not. "I thought only Hunters did that."

"Anybody can," Jayesh replied. "It's relaxing. And fun." He noticed her arm around him. "What's this?"

She jerked her arm away. "Nothing. Just trying to make you feel better."

He studied her for a long moment. "Well ... it did. Thanks."

The end


End file.
